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How many times have you seen a photograph of tall trees taken with the camera pointing straight up and the trees converging high in the sky? It’s a pretty common shot. Standing in a grove, turning your eyes upward and wondering at the enormity of these living things, putting camera to eye and pressing the […]

I’ve been using the pretext of touring my camera bag to carry on a general discussion of photographic gear. So far we’ve covered the camera bag, the camera body itself, lenses and filters. In this installment we will cover miscellaneous items. If you haven’t seen the previous articles, here are the links: Photographic Gear – […]

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We landscape photographers tend to avoid photographing during the middle of a sunny day. The light is harsh with no color. We prefer golden hour or twilight.

But there are times when we have no choice as to when we can shoot. When we’re on vacation with family we can’t wait until sunset at every location that sparks our interest. So we get the shot and hope for the best. But there’s a technique we can use that will greatly enhance our chances of capturing a more compelling photograph.

This Ansel Adams photograph has always stood out from the rest of his works. It doesn’t have the usual crispness or drama that one normally expects. Instead the focus is soft and the shadows are not full and rich. It almost seems like it might have been created by another person. And for that reason I find it all the more interesting.

It’s difficult to imagine the great Ansel Adams as an amateur, a novice photographer. One normally associates him with a supremely confident master of his art, a pioneer of techniques, both technical and aesthetic, that we still use and revere today. And this is certainly an accurate characterization. But like all of us, he had to start somewhere. We all go through a period where our art is in its formative stages, where we are discovering ourselves, our vision and our voice. And this photograph was part of the process for Adams.